Product Information

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Format: DRM Protected ePubVendor: Thomas NelsonPublication Date: 2012

ISBN: 9781595553669ISBN-13: 9781595553669

Publisher's Description

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A handsome Italian film producer and a beautiful Mexican dancer. A match made on a movie set and a lavish Beverly Hills wedding. The beginning of Camille Franzeses story takes on the shade of an exotic fairy tale. But a closer look at her marriage to mafia capo Michael Franzese exposes more than a decade of anguish endured in the shadows of her husbands crimes. The fear of arrest, the prison sentences, the house raids from federal agentsCamille lived through it all, not knowing whether her family could remain unbroken amid the turmoil and uncertainty that accompanied her husbands life of crime.

Discover how Camilles devotion to her marriage and her faith in Gods larger plan led to deliverance from devastation. Hers is a story of choices, consequences, and the prayers that hold us up when everything around us is falling down.

Author Bio

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Cammy Franzese is a devout Christian who played a major role in her infamous husbands decision to walk away from his former life as a capo in the mob. Against nearly insurmountable odds, she and Michael sustained a healthy marriage and raised four beautiful children.

The life they are a part of is filled with violence and anger and they need the Lord Jesus just like we all do... in a witness protection or the Mafia killed you, so how did her husband escape this? She had to have Faith or just be naive to have stuck out the marriage. Maybe my expectations were just to high considering the title of the book. They began seeing each other, dating, and would eventually marry. When she married him, she was young and naive and not really aware of the fact that he was involved in a Mafia family. This is a fascinating, easy read on how a leader in the Mob finds a Christian wife and is eventually chosen by God Almighty to enter a new life as a born-again Christian. t I really want to learn more about. To walk away from millions of dollars and a lifestyle that he had been in his who life to go straight is truly remarkable. I liked this book well enough, and to some people I would think it would be very interesting.

. I say this because most of the lessons being taught can be used in your life. These lessons are life lessons and will help you to live a better and more fulfilling life. The author relates the hardened,unvarnished stories of the most notorious underworld figures in their own words. He then cites the lessons from history that serve as reminders of Santayana's axiom regarding remembering the past.

I didn't know what to expect when I got the book. I thought it was going to be one of those "self-help" type book or some sort of a spiritual journey.

It was about an Italian film producer who met and fell in love with a young Mexican dancer. Cammy Franzes met Michael while she was rehearsing for a dance. At first she kept putting his off but finally decided it was time to go out with him.

This is a book that is very easy to read that talks about the life and marriage of Michael and Cammy Franzese. Michael is an anomaly in the sense that he was able to walk away from his life as a former Mob boss and live to tell about it. The book is about Cammy's experiences of being married to Michael and the stresses and challenges of being married to someone who spent a lot of time in prison and has faced death threats multiple times. Cammy does a great job of weaving her faith and perspective throughout the book.

The story was a quick read, and Cammy does a very good job of giving a woman's perspective on dealing with a challenging marriage. She interjects her beliefs and faith in Christ throughout the story very effectively. I have previously read books that Michael Franzese had written about his former life, which gave me a lot of valuable background knowledge. I think this book would lose some of it's impact if that information is missing for readers, but it was still a great book to encourage women who are in difficult relationships that there is nothing that is beyond the reaching of God's redemptive power.

This is a difficult book for me to review as it is an autobiography. How do you review someones own reflections on their life? The real difficult thing for me is that I disagree with the main theme of the book, and ultimately the life of the author.

Cammie Franzese was brought up in a poor family. Her father thought of herself as a revolutionary, and put 'the cause' before his family. He was an alcoholic and didn't provide basics like food for his children. Her mother however remained faithfully devoted to him firmly under the mantra of 'we make choices, and we have to deal with the consequences, so we always have to pray'. Her mother felt that it was her choice to marry this man therefore she must stick with him whatever that meant. Cammie wound up marrying a man who was a big player in the mafia, though he didn't reveal any aspect of his past to her before or during their marriage (she found out the details when she read his book). Cammie adopted her mother's mantra, even believing she heard God say to her "You reap what you sew, I allowed you to be together, but ultimately there are consequences for the choice you made." These consequences included raising her family alone as her husband was in jail for charges she didn't fully understand or ask about, and even finding herself briefly in jail due to her husband's actions.

There are many aspects of this book that made me very uncomfortable, but the main thing I saw over and over was the cycle that was perpetuated in this family. Cammie saw her mother committed to an abuse, though perhaps not physically abusive husband, and found herself in the same situation. There are many small tidbits of conversations Cammie writes about where her children are showing evidence of going towards a similar fate. They stand up for their father when their mother is frustrated with his temperament or possessiveness, and say simply 'that's who he is'. Though really, the point of the book seems to be to encourage people that they have to stick out marriages, or other situations, regardless of the dangers they present, because we have to live with our consequences. I think that's what the author wants us to come away with.

The tricky part of reviewing this for me is that on one hand I agree. Life is full of choices, and we are accountable for those choices. We do have to live with our consequences, both on earth and ultimately to God. But, at the same time I don't think this was the message Jesus brought. He taught about grace and forgiveness; He came to protected the abused, the poor and the powerless. I have a problem with any teaching that calls people to stay in a bad situation, simply because they got themselves into that bad situation. How Cammie didn't see the affect her mother's commitment to an unchanging, irresponsible man affected her and her siblings safety, and how staying with a similar kind of man will affect her own children, is something I don't understand. Of course, I have never encountered anything like this in my own life.

Overall the writing of the book is a bit clumsy; it felt more like a letter someone might write a friend letting them know about their life. The timeline jumps around quite a bit, and new individuals are quickly mentioned without background and never mentioned again. But, it is a biography and not meant to be a great piece of literature. Cammie's husband has his own full time ministry with book, as he is a Christian now, and after reading this I have no desire what so ever to read anything of his. I fear what this book would do in the hand of a victim of abuse. Most books I read I try to pass along to someone, but I don't know what to do with this. I know I will not read it again, and can't think of anyone who would be particularly interested in reading it. However it will say it got me thinking quite a bit, and chipping away for myself and my beliefs and where they lie with what Jesus taught.